I am making beef stew in the crockpot! It smells ridic! good. I'm going to make buttermilk biscuits to go with. And a salad and apple crisp. And a friend is coming over later for dinner.

I already did my outings for the day, and have no cooking plan, so am not doing that, either. Tomorrow I'm getting a haircut, so that's exciting.

msbelle, thanks for the donation! We had a blast jumping today.

I need to get some ribs in the over for dinner. I'm STARVIN'.

Brrr, Cash! Nice work.

You called?

Still thy selves, people, for I have come among you to spread the blessed word of COFFEE!

Tea-drinkers, desist thy prattling, for now is the time to tell of the ONE TRUE BREW!

Okay, we happened upon this coffee completely by accident (a present from a relative of the roaster). The one true coffee is Costa Rican roasted by Blue Mountain Community College out of - of all places - Pendleton, Oregon.

The coffee will only cost you $5 for a half pound (plus whatever the shipping may run). The roaster, Dale, only sells the coffee in half pound bags and will attempt to deter you from ordering too many at once as he strongly believes in coffee being fresh. Listen to the man.

The default for all his coffees is medium roast and brewing grind. You have the option of dark, medium or light roasts and the grind levels are whole bean, french press, brewing, espresso and Turkish.

Now I've always been in the whole bean camp due to how much better the condition of the oils are, however I have been converted to Dale's default brewing grind of the medium roast. The grind is so vastly superior to anything I could manage and the coffee's oils are still present; when you first crack open a packet you'll find the coffee's powder will actually clump.

The Costa Rican is smoooooooth. But has good body from first to last (and after) taste. It's astonishingly good. Edit: it also has the lowest acidity we've yet found in a coffee.

And they do have plenty of other coffees. We've tried their Blue Mountain which came off a little shy of body (sorry, ita) though I accept that may be down to our coffee maker rather than the bean. We tried a Guatemalan which was AGGRESSIVE upfront but with a so-so finish and I have an Ethiopian here to try that once you've gotten past the coffee smell kind of smells like warm buttered toast.

And lastly, I took a bag of the Costa Rican to all 4 parties I attended over Christmas and in the last order of 11 bags, only 2 were for me. One taste and a whole bunch of friends were converted.

Buying is all very low tech. After emailing your order, you'll get your coffee with an invoice. Yup, you pay by check AFTER you get the product! It's so 1970's!

If you want the email address, drop me a line at my profile addy.

Kristin, this WILL become your one true coffee. I'd put money on it.

I'm sitting in a dark theatre. As usual.

Well, after Dylan lost the privilege of listening to audiobooks at naptime and then further lost the privilege of being able to open his door (I put the child-protector thingy back on his doorknob), I've spent the last hour listening to him go through every possible negotiation tactic from behind the now-locked door.

First it was a standard screaming tantrum. Then he lost track of why he was angry and just started chanting the words "Mommy Daddy come here now!" over and over in increasingly silly voices. Then he tried being very sad and saying "Mommy...I'm so lonely..." Now he's yelling "Mommy and Daddy I have a surprise for both of you!" in an attempt to bribe us in there.

I'm thinking it may be time to simply quit naptime altogether, but the thought of losing my one hour of peace and quiet a day makes me want to cry. Maybe we should just let him watch TV.

Thanks Pete!

Jessica, for what it's worth, both my kids gave up the afternoon nap right at age 2. It sucked for a few months because they kept falling asleep right before dinner and never slept through the night for the first two months but they were getting their 11-12 hours of sleep without the nap.

As much as I miss it, if they're not going to sleep, the battle may not be worth it. But you could probably let him earn some tv time by keeping 1/2 hour Quiet Rest Time as a standard policy.

I am running errands with tentative plans to visit Colin. Or go back home and lie down. Got to smog next.